Tuesday, May 25, 2021

On Saturday, Italy won its third victory at the Eurovision Song Competition, held this year at the Rotterdam Ahoy arena in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The Italian rock band Måneskin’s song Zitti E Buoni won 524 points from public and professional judges. French singer Barbara Pravi’s song Voilà received 499 points, and Swiss singer Gjon’s Tears Tout l’univers got 432 points; finishing second and third respectively.

Out of 39 countries participating this time, 26 countries including hosts Netherlands and the Big Five — France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom — competed in the finals. The competition began on May 18. Three of the Big Five, and the hosts finished at the very bottom of the vote ranking. Netherlands got 11, Spain got six, Germany bagged three and the UK received zero points. All four received zero points from the audience.

Dutch singer Duncan Laurence won the 2019 edition of Eurovision in Tel Aviv winning 498 points for his song Arcade. That victory meant Netherlands was to host the competition 2020, which was cancelled because of “escalating spread of COVID-19 throughout Europe”. This year, 3500 people were in audience, multiple reports stated. They all were tested negative to be eligible for attending the event, Eurovision stated.

Iceland’s Daði Freyr could not perform live in both semi-finals and the final, having tested positive of the virus. A pre-recorded performance of Daði og Gagnamagnið was played, which finished fourth, receiving 378 points, 12 more than Ukrainian singer Go_A’s song Shum.

Switzerland finished at top, during the jury voting, receiving 267 points. France finished second during the national jury voting with 248 points. During the jury voting, when France and Switzerland were very close to each other, Pravi said, “I think it is crazy that two French songs are on the top, thank you!”

National juries of both Switzerland and the UK awarded 12 points to France. Pravi uttered “Merci!” ^{((fr))French language: ?Thank you!}, clapped and blew a kiss towards the Swiss team, upon receiving 12 points from the Swiss jury.

Italy received 318 points from the audience, putting them on top. That sufficed them to win the competition. Upon winning, Måneskin’s lead vocalist Damiano David said, “We just want to say to the whole Europe, to the whole world, rock and roll never dies.”

As the winner of this year’s competition, Italy is to host next year’s Eurovision Song Competition. Italy had previously won Eurovision in 1990. Måneskin is the first band to win the competition since 2006, the BBC noted.

Monday, September 27, 2021

Since June 2019, the people of South Gippsland Shire, located at the southernmost tip of Australia, have been without a local council, after a state government inquiry found “high levels of tension” within the council. Administrators were appointed by the Victorian state government in July 2019, who have governed the shire since then. However, South Gippsland’s council is scheduled to be restored with an election to be held via post from October 5–22, 2021.

Wikinews interviewed one of the candidates standing in this election, David Liebelt, an independent candidate running in the Coastal-Promontory Ward. The Coastal-Promontory ward covers towns such as Venus Bay, Waratah Bay, Yanakie, Foster, Port Welshpool, and Toora, and elects three councillors to the South Gippsland Shire Council.

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

A team of scientists from Australia and US has found a solution for a challenging problem in climate research. Climate models predicted more greenhouse gases would weaken the equatorial Pacific trade winds.However, over the past two decades, observations showed this Walker circulation was getting stronger, accelerating sea level rise in the western Pacific, and consequent changes in global climate.The researcher team reports, “The answer to the puzzle is that recent rapid Atlantic Ocean warming has affected climate in the Pacific”.Their study, “Recent Walker circulation strengthening and Pacific cooling amplified by Atlantic warming”, was published on Sunday in Nature Climate Change.

While previous research supposed natural variability alone accounted for cooling in the eastern Pacific, this study highlights a previously overlooked climate feedback: as the Atlantic warms, it alters the winds over the Pacific, depressing the ocean temperature there.As coauthor Shayne McGregor of the University of New South Wales explains, “the main cause of the Pacific wind, temperature, and sea level trends over the past 20 years lies in the Atlantic Ocean […] We saw that the rapid Atlantic surface warming observed since the early 1990s, induced partly by greenhouse gases, has generated unusually low sea level pressure over the tropical Atlantic. This, in turn, produces an upward motion of the overlying air parcels. These parcels move westward aloft and then sink again in the eastern equatorial Pacific, where their sinking creates a high pressure system. The resulting Atlantic–Pacific pressure difference strengthens the Pacific trade winds.”

Coauthor Malte Stuecker of the University of Hawaii Meteorology Department reports that “Our study documents that some of the largest tropical and subtropical climate trends of the past 20 years are all linked: Strengthening of the Pacific trade winds, acceleration of sea level rise [three times faster than the global average] in the western Pacific, eastern Pacific surface cooling, the global warming hiatus, and even the massive droughts in California”. His colleague cauthor Fei-Fei Jin adds, “We are just starting to grasp the scope of the impacts of this global atmospheric reorganization and of the out-of phase temperature trends in the Atlantic and Pacific regions”.Work earlier this year by coauthor Matthew England, University of New South Wales, showed the stronger winds have churned up the waters of the Western Pacific Ocean, so more heat flows from the winds into the water. This appears to explain why global surface temperatures have recently risen more slowly.

Coauthor Axel Timmermann of the University of Hawaii notes a further amplifying effect: “Stronger trade winds in the equatorial Pacific also increase the upwelling of cold waters to the surface. The resulting near-surface cooling in the eastern Pacific amplifies the Atlantic–Pacific pressure seesaw, thus further intensifying the trade winds […] It turns out that the current generation of climate models underestimates the extent of the Atlantic–Pacific coupling, which means that they cannot properly capture the observed eastern Pacific cooling, which has contributed significantly to the leveling off, or the hiatus, in global warming.”As Professor England said, “It will be difficult to predict when the Pacific cooling trend and its contribution to the global hiatus in surface temperatures will come to an end. […] However, a large El Niño event is one candidate that has the potential to drive the system back to a more synchronized Atlantic/Pacific warming situation.”

Sunday, December 9, 2007

Early afternoon saw a shooting in the church parking lot of New Life Church, an Evangelical Megachurch, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States. According to a report quoting the church’s pastor four people were shot by a gunman in the car park.

At this time it is unknown if there is any connection with yesterday’s shooting approximately 70 miles away in Arvada, Colorado, where a gunman shot two and injured two people at Faith Bible Chapel’s missionary training centre in a dormitory.

Saturday, January 6, 2007

Strong storms hit the southeastern United States on Friday. Crews are currently working to restore power to the area. There are two known fatalities. Tornadoes were reported in South Carolina, Mississippi and Louisiana.

In South Carolina, a tornado piled up cars, injuring 15, by an elementary school.

In Mississippi, 9 people were injured with “8 to 10 homes destroyed,” said Ben Dudley, Kemper County’s emergency management director.

In Alabama, a few mobile homes were destroyed and power was out.

Louisiana had the worst damage (especially around Iberia Parish) with a tornado touching down.

In Georgia, there were a large number of trees down.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Since the August 20 release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, who was convicted of planting a bomb on Pan Am Flight 103, there has been growing controversy surrounding the events which led to his release. Pan Am Flight 103 exploded in-flight in 1988 as the aircraft flew over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 259 people on board and eleven more on the ground. Al Megrahi is the only person to have been convicted of the bombing.

In recent years, the British government has negotiated oil development deals with Libya. As part of the negotiations, at least three UK ministers traveled to Libya in the months leading up to Al Megrahi’s release.

Leaked letters from UK Justice Secretary Jack Straw to his Scottish counterpart, Kenny MacAskill, stated that it was in the “overwhelming national interests” of the UK to include Al Megrahi in prisoner transfer agreements which were part of the oil trade deals. These letters have lead to widespread speculation that the British government influenced the Scottish decision to release Al Megrahi.

Al Megrahi was released on compassionate grounds as he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. However, this diagnosis was called into question as The Times revealed that the health director of the Scottish Prison Service, Dr. Andrew Fraser, relied on the advice of a general practitioner instead of an oncologist, when issuing his recommendation for release.

When Al Megrahi returned to Libyan soil, Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi thanked Gordon Brown and Queen Elizabeth for his release.

Saif al-Islam Muammar al-Gaddafi, the son of Muammar al-Gaddafi, has stated that during the prisoner transfer agreement (PTA) phase the trade negotiations, the Al Megrahi case was not specifically named, yet it was implied.

“The fight to get the [prisoner transfer] agreement lasted a long time and was very political, but I want to make clear that we didn’t mention Mr Megrahi. At all times we talked about the PTA. It was obvious we were talking about him. We all knew that was what we were talking about,” he said.

In Scotland, the release of Al Megrahi has caused significant debate. A poll conducted for the BBC by ICM Research found that 60% of Scots thought the Scottish Government was wrong to allow the release. 68% believe the decision was made fore reasons that did not pertain to Al Megrahi’s health.

“No one I think seriously believes we made any other decision except for the right reasons,” First Minister Alex Salmond said on Wednesday. “I think it was the right decision. I also absolutely know it was for the right reasons.”

“We didn’t think that the Lockerbie decision should be linked to trade or oil decisions by anyone who looked at the coincidence that the prisoner transfer agreement was being negotiated at the same time as commercial contracts,” Salmon also stated.

The UK Prime Minister’s office stated Monday that, “There was no deal over [the] release of al-Megrahi nor could there ever be, since all decisions were for the Scottish, not U.K. government.”

“The central assertion in this story is completely untrue and deeply misleading,” Downing Street added.

Correspondence released on Tuesday by the UK government shows that Abdulati Alobidi, the Libyan minister to Europe warned of “catastrophic effects for the relationship between Libya and the UK,” if Al Megrahi were to die in prison in Scotland.

When Salmond asked Straw what the national interests of the UK were, Jack Straw replied, “Having sponsored terrorist attacks in the past, it [Libya] is now an important partner in the fight against terrorism.” Libya approved a large oil exploration contract to BP within days of the letter.

Libyan officials have said that since al-Megrahi’s return to Libya, his health has deteriorated. He was not part of the 40th anniversary celebrations for Gaddafi’s coup d’état held on Tuesday.

Thursday, June 28, 2007

West Indies have beaten England by 15 runs in the first Twenty20 international of their tour of England at The Oval, London, England.

The West Indian innings started off badly by losing Gayle early, however they turned their fortunes around with some attacking and aggressive cricket and posted a huge total of 208. A bigger total could have been posted if it had not been for a late innings batting collapse. England started their reply by getting off to a flyer, but lost some early wickets that slowed down the run-rate. Leading the charge was Paul Collingwood with a fast 79 with 5 4’s and 4 6’s. In the end, England fell short by 15 runs. Had they not have lost the early wickets, England would have probably won the match to take a 1-0 lead in the series. Instead, it is West Indies that have taken a 1-0 lead in the series.

Toss: West Indies won, and chose to bat first.

Did not bat: DBL Powell

Fall of wickets: 1-13 (Gayle, 1.4 ov), 2-97 (Chanderpaul, 10.1 ov), 3-115 (DS Smith, 12.1 ov), 4-131 (Bravo, 13.2 ov), 5-190 (Ramdin, 17.3 ov), 6-199 (Samuels, 18.2 ov), 7-204 (DR Smith, 18.6 ov), 8-206 (Sammy, 19.3 ov)

Did not bat: RJ Sidebottom, JM Anderson

Fall of wickets: 1-40 (Cook, 4.2 ov), 2-48 (Prior, 4.6 ov), 3-69 (Trott, 7.5 ov), 4-78 (Pietersen, 9.1 ov), 5-90 (Shah, 10.5 ov), 6-101 (Mascarenhas, 12.2 ov), 7-192 (Collingwood, 19.5 ov)

England: A N Cook, M J Prior(wkt), I J L , K P Pietersen, P D Collingwood(capt), O A Shah, A D Mascarenhas , M H Yardy, S C J Broad, R J Sidebottom, J M Anderson

West Indies: C H Gayle(capt), D S Smith, S Chanderpaul , M N Samuels, D J Bravo, D Ramdin(wkt), D R Smith, R S Morton, D J G Sammy, Ravi Rampaul, D B L Powell

Result: West Indies won by 15 runs

Twenty20 Debutants:AN Cook, AD Mascarenhas, MJ Prior, OA Shah, RJ Sidebottom and IJL Trott (England); DBL Powell, R Rampaul, DJG Sammy, MN Samuels and DS Smith (West Indies)

Player of the match: P D Collingwood

Umpires: P J Hartley and N J LlongTV umpire: I J GouldMatch referee: M J Procter (South Africa)Reserve umpire: RT Robinson